John Stossel did an interesting story on Friday’s 20/20 about voting. He asked whether uninformed voters shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Watch a portion of the segment here. The piece unfortunately focuses on young voters, but certainly the message holds true for voters of any age who are, by and large, uninformed on the issues….
As part of the lengthy, ongoing debate about the voting age on Facebook in response to NYRA-Southeast Florida’s awesome voting age ad, one person (trying to sound much smarter than he is) posted something about women & youth. While this isn’t the best articulated version of this argument it is one that we get quite…
Having just returned from my weekend volunteering at the Renaissance Fair, I’ve realized that something has really been bugging me lately. Specifically, parents who put their children on leashes. They make them look cute: fuzzy teddy bears, big green frogs, or whatever, but with a long tail, firmly Velcro’ed around some helicopter mom’s wrist. Firstly,…
A new NYRA fundraiser is underway on our Lower the Drinking Age cause on Facebook. The fundraiser aims for $21,000 to lower the drinking age. The money raised will be put towards debates, training workshops for chapters, spreading information about responsible drinking, providing money for college chapters, and advertising. The 21K to End 21 fundraiser…
NYRA has already gotten media publicity on the drinking age in the past month since the creation of the Amethyst Initiative. Vice President Stefan Muller did a radio interview in San Francisco on August 19 and Executive Director Alex Koroknay-Palicz made radio appearances in Pittsburgh on August 19 and Raleigh, NC on August 20. During…
NYRA has campaigned to lower the legal drinking age to 18 for years, and progress has been made. But the prospect of a lower drinking age came one step closer to reality in the past month with the emergence of the Amethyst Initiative, a group of over 120 college presidents calling for a reconsideration of…
The National Youth Rights Association has decided to air its first ever television ad. The ad seeks support for lowering the voting age to 16. The ad will run in the Washington, DC market in late October on the popular channels CNN, Comedy Central, MSNBC, MTV, VH1, and Cartoon Network. We hope to target both…
If all the activity of the past month wasn’t enough, NYRA has moved to a new office! After the annual meeting was over and most people had gone home, NYRA staff and volunteers helped move all our equipment to our new offices. In an office swap with another organization, Atlas Service Corps, NYRA got a…
NYRA and board member Keith Mandell are sponsoring “Make NYRA Famous,” a contest to see who can create the best NYRA TV ad. We are looking for talented, creative members and supporters to create our very first TV ad, which will be aired on Washington DC cable this fall on stations like CNN and MTV….
Voting in this year’s annual election is complete, and the results have been announced! The membership chose a new Board of Directors, a new slogan for NYRA, and voted on changes to the organization’s mission statement and bylaws. Voting began on July 3 and lasted for a month until the annual meeting on August 2;…
